As far as the Kobe thing goes, according to wikipedia:
"The teams agreed to the trade the day before the draft and the Lakers did not tell the Hornets who to select until five minutes before the pick was made.[29] Branch said that prior to the trade agreement, the Hornets never even considered drafting Bryant"
In other words, one of the conditions of the Lakers trading for the pick was that they would get to tell the Hornets who to draft. So the Lakers de facto drafted Kobe, even if they didn't technically draft Kobe.
Hell, even if the Lakers didn't tell the Hornets to select Kobe, trading for drafted player that hasn't played yet is essentially the same thing as trading for a pick and then selecting him yourself.
The point of the matter is, to build a contender you need to acquire at least one superstar through the draft, and unless you get really lucky and draft a Kobe-like player with the 13th pick, you USUALLY need to get a much higher pick in order for the plan to work. (see: Duncan, Dirk, Pierce, Wade, Durant, Westbrook, et. al.) Let's call this step 1. If you're really good at drafting you might end at step 1 like the Spurs, or essentially the Thunder.
Next is step 2. Once you get a superstar through the draft, you can work on acquiring complimentary talent, usually by discarding other assets you acquired while your team was terrible, and also through free agency. (see: us trading a pick for Ray, who then convinces KG to come on board) Some teams have a built-in free agent advantage (NY, LA, MIA). However, other teams can create attractive locations for free agents by showcasing a superstar talent (see: part of the reason Lebron and Bosh went to Miami was because they already had Wade).
Step 3: contend for a championship.
99% of championship contenders have followed that mode, going back to the beginning of the league.
Rondo frankly isn't good enough to be that guy. He's not a Kobe, Duncan, Pierce, Durant, Wade, or going back, a Jordan, a Hakeem, a Magic Johnson, an Isiah, a Bird...
Notice something? That method I just described explains every championship going back for about the last 3 decades, with the exception of that freakish Pistons team. Unless you think much more highly of Rondo than I do, I say forget it, we need get high draft picks by getting bad.